South Africa's Waze user base sees phenomenal growth

14 May 2012: Waze, an innovative free app that relies on crowd-sourcing to help drivers outsmart and beat traffic together, has seen its user base in South Africa double since the app’s official launch two months ago.

“Our user base has shot up from 30 000 to 64 389 users since February this year, but more importantly, the total number of driven kilometres recorded by the app has increased from roughly 3.5 million in February to over 7 million in May,” says Charles Tasker, Managing Director of MiX Telematics, the company responsible for bringing Waze to South Africa.

“These figures indicate that the users who are downloading the app are using it extensively. This will have a positive impact on the quality and relevance of the data the app communicates to drivers, which in turn should encourage more sign-ups,” adds Tasker.

Waze, which is freely available for download from www.waze.com or the relevant smartphone app stores, anonymously shares the information the app passively transmits about a user’s speed and location to identify where traffic is moving slowly.

It then uses this information to alert and route drivers around slow-moving traffic and road hazards or accidents, ultimately saving them time and resulting in less spend on fuel and less traffic-related stress.

“Though we have seen a considerable increase in the local Waze user base, we believe this is only the beginning. Twitter saw a 20 fold increase in little more than a year in 2011; if Waze follows a similar growth pattern, we could very well see Waze becoming the traffic and navigation app of choice for smartphone users all over South Africa,” concludes Tasker.

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MiX Telematics is a leading global provider of fleet and mobile asset management solutions delivered as SaaS to more than 664,000 subscribers in over 120 countries. The company’s products and services provide enterprise fleets, small fleets and consumers with solutions for efficiency, safety, compliance and security. MiX Telematics was founded in 1996 and has offices in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uganda, Brazil, Australia and the United Arab Emirates as well as a network of more than 130 fleet partners worldwide. MiX Telematics shares are publicly traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE: MIX) and on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: MIXT). For more information, visit www.mixtelematics.com.